• 07/27/2024

    Czech singer-songwriter Oldřich Janota, a key figure of the country’s alternative folk scene, has died at the age of 74. The news was announced by his family on social media on Saturday. The Plzeň-born artist was known for incorporating minimalist and experimental techniques into folk music, as well as working with pre-recorded tapes.

    Janota wrote his first songs in the late 1960s. He performed with the folk-rock band Pentagram, before establishing his own group called Mozart K in 1979. In 2009, a 17-track album Ztracený ve světě: A Tribute to Oldřich Janota was released to mark his 60th birthday.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 07/27/2024

    Czech international football player Václav Černý is moving from VfL Wolfsburg to the Scottish club Rangers. The 26-year-old winger has signed a one-year contract with the Scottish club.

    Černý moved from the Dutch club Twente Enschede to Wolfsburg last year. He signed a four-year contract with the Bundesliga club.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 07/27/2024

    One of Istanbul's most sought-after landmarks, the underground Basilica Cistern, will feature an exhibition of mostly crystal artworks by Czech sculptors Vlastimil Beránek and Jaroslav Prošek.

    The showcase, which gets underway on July 31, is co-organized by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Istanbul, and will run until November 30.

    The ancient cistern was built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian I. It has a capacity of 80 thousand tons of water and covers an area of approximately 10,000 square metres. Today it is kept with little water, for public access inside the space.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 07/27/2024

    Building land prices rose by more than 25 percent in the second quarter of 2024 and by 6.4 percent quarter-on-quarter, according to an analysis by the real estate agency RE/MAX. A square metre of building land in Czechia currently costs approximately CZK 4,233 and the average price for a plot of land is approximately CZK 4 million.

    The highest purchase values ate in Prague, where a square metre sells for CZK 14,000 and a plot of lands costs an average of CZK 15 million. According to RE/MAX, buyers prefer relatively cheaper land further away from major cities, which pushes up average prices.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 07/27/2024

    UK singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran will perform two concerts in Hradec Králové within his Mathematics World Tour on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets for the first show sold out within hours so a second one was added for the following evening.

    The two performances, taking place at the city’s 360 Festival Park, could draw up to 120,000 people. The police have warned drivers to expect traffic restrictions in the vicinity of the concert and strict security measures will be in place for concert-goers. Sheeran had last performed in Czechia in 2019.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 07/26/2024

    Extremely hot weather is expected in Czechia on Saturday. The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has issued a warning that temperatures could reach up to 33 degrees Celsius and in South Moravia even as high as 35 degrees Celsius.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 07/26/2024

    The Czech ambassador to Jordan, Alexandr Sporýš, has been dismissed by Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský due to "a managerial failure", Foreign Ministry spokesperson Daniel Drake told the Czech News Agency on Friday. Mr. Sporýš replaced Josef Koutský as ambassador to Jordan last summer.

    According to news site Deník N's sources, the reasons for the dismissal were that the embassy in Amman had "ceased to function" under Sporýš's leadership, with employee complaints, bullying and the premature departure of the ambassador's deputy being cited.

    Mr. Sporýš himself has denied any instances of bullying and stated that he was not aware of any staff problems at the embassy. He told Deník N that his deputy left for health reasons.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 07/26/2024

    Prime Minister Petr Fiala arrived in Paris on Friday for the official opening ceremony at the Czech House in the French capital’s La Villette park. He was welcomed there to the sound of live music by the head of the Czech Olympic Committee, Jiří Kejval.

    The Czech House is intended to serve as a base for Czech fans who have come to Paris to watch the Games and as a place for them to meet competing Czech athletes. It will be open to the public from 5.30pm on Friday. The official Olympic Games opening ceremony is due to kick off two hours later.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 07/26/2024

    Tennis players Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková won the doubles final at the WTA Prague Open on Friday, in advance of their departure for the Paris Olympic Games. They beat the Czech-American duo of Lucie Šafářová and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6:3, 6:3 on clay at TK Sparta Prague.

    On Saturday they will begin defending their Olympic title from the Tokyo Games in 2021 with a first-round duel against the Taiwanese pair Chan Hao-ching (also known as Angel Chan) and Latisha Chan in Paris.

    This was Krejčíková and Siniaková's first time playing together as a doubles team since last November, when they took a break at Siniaková's instigation.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 07/26/2024

    Work on building the first section of a planned network of high-speed railway lines in Czechia is due to begin next year, Transport Minister Martin Kupka said on Friday at a conference in Prague for entrepreneurs in the construction industry. The first section of the high-speed network will connect the South Moravian capital of Brno with the town of Přerov in the Olomouc Region. Trains on this new network should be able to travel at speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour.

    Work on the next section between Brno and Břeclav, a town in the South Moravian Region close to the border with Slovakia and Austria, is planned for 2026, while a third route to the Moravian-Silesian Region is scheduled to start in 2028 at the latest. If everything goes well, the construction of the Prague part of the high-speed network should start in 2030, the minister said.

    The construction of high-speed railway lines in the country has been discussed since the 1990s, but concrete preparations only started in recent years.

    Author: Anna Fodor

Pages